1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to aids for the wearing of jewelry and in particular to aids for the fastening and unfastening of jewelry connectors and removing decorative charms such as locked charms and safety chain locks from charm bracelets.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Decorative charms such as locked charms and safety chain locks, once installed onto a bracelet, are held securely in place by a firm compression member. These types of jewelry pieces are also commonly referred to as European chains or European Charm Bracelets. Given the often high value attributed to these charms, the compression member is designed to prevent accidents by making it very difficult for the charm to be opened and thereby removed from the charm bracelet. To further reduce the risk that valuable charms will get accidentally lost, many bracelets are fitted with safety chains and locks as well. Moreover, jewelry such as necklaces, anklets and bracelets frequently have connectors that are difficult to grasp, easily retain in an open position and securely latch. This may be attributed to the fine delicate nature of many of these pieces of jewelry, but the jewelry latching process is further complicated by the limitations of the fastener and/or wearer to successfully manipulate and fasten the connectors of the piece of jewelry.
By way of example, fastening a typical “lobster claw” or spring ring type clasp requires the manipulation of a small lever that extends from the annular ring of the clasp to actuate to the opening and closing of the clasp. The lever can be difficult to visually or tactilely find, manipulate and retain in an open position against the bias of the clasp. The fastener then has to place the opposing connector of the piece of jewelry into the narrow opening of the clasp and release the lever to fasten the connectors together.
The difficult processes for fastening the clasp and splitting open a charm to add or remove it from a charm bracelet can be increased by the inability of the fastener to see, align, and fasten the connectors of the jewelry together. Opening a charm by hand is practically impossible. The narrow opening of the charm is so fine that a finger nail could barely fit in let alone travel the length of the charm exterior to reach the compression member deep within. These difficulties attributed to charm bracelets have caused many wearers to attempt latching the connectors by trial and error and split open the charm by using means that may damage the charm and bracelet. This can be sufficiently frustrating and harmful when a user resorts to commonly available pointed objects such as knives and needles to open their charms.
While aids have been developed to assist in opening and removing charms from a charm bracelet and the fastening of the connectors of pieces of jewelry, none provide the ease of use and flexibility that many user's demand. An aid for safely opening a decorative charm and spring type jewelry connectors without damaging these jewelry items is needed. The present invention effectuates these needs.